


running fast, out of time

by bread_master2000



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: M/M, definitely a slow burn, everyone's best buds nobody can tell me different, i just like the idea of everyone being together and doing shit man, kind of clint/pietro centric but who knows where i'll go with this???, team team team (:
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-06
Updated: 2015-05-11
Packaged: 2018-03-29 09:48:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3891766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bread_master2000/pseuds/bread_master2000
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>the avengers and "extended family" go on a mission and it goes to absolute shit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I

**Author's Note:**

> I am in no way an expert writer so bear with my mistakes and I (:

How the hell did any of this even happen? Clint had no idea except for the fact it was really god damn loud and there was no way he could see anybody through all this smoke.

“Nat, where’s your position? I can’t find anybody,” Clint says as he pulls the draw string back and releases it into some kind of humanoids metal skull. After the whole Ultron thing, robots had become somewhat of a trend for the people the Avengers were fighting against.

How fun.

They had split into groups of two or three to cover more ground and find out where the hydra base was keeping their central data. Bucky watched from above in the beginning with a sniper but moved from his position when he saw Steve go down. Natasha tried to go around the base with Bruce before he accidentally hulked out because of, you know, getting shot at.

Wanda and Vision were quite the team in keeping the quinjet from getting destroyed. Stark, Sam, and Rhodey where their eyes in the sky, trying to spot out the least guarded area for Clint and the little shit Pietro go in and take the information of what exactly they were doing there.

Pietro was supposed to go in and get as much information on drives as he could before Clint couldn't hold the opposing force off any longer and his position was compromised.

And that plan went to shit straight away, for your concern. For one, Bucky left his position to go save his lover boy, Bruce is stomping around in the least stealthy way possible, Clint can’t see anything except of the bots around him and all up in his face, and Pietro isn’t responding to anybody’s calls.

“Southeast corner by the quinjet. There’s too many of them out here to hold for long. Tell Pietro to hurry his ass up,” Natasha responded with several grunts breaking apart her words.

“Yeah, one problem, Widow. Speedy over there," Tony paused to swear, probably doing something stupid, "Isn't answering his comm, so either he’s dead or screwed.”

Clint swore he heard Cap mumble language before Wanda began to yell at Tony.

“He’s not dead, but he’s in trouble. I can feel it,” Wanda almost screamed, her accent thick with fear.

That cocky punk insisted on going in alone and now he’s probably gotten himself killed. If Clint could, he would sigh continuously for 87 years, but now wasn't the best time, now was it?

“Jesus Christ, I’ll go in and pull his ass out of trouble. Get the quinjet started and get to it, we’re leaving as soon as we get there,” Clint grumbled. He was not looking forward to this.

“I would advise against that, Mr. Barton,” Vision stated, his voice level and reasoning. “There is a high concentration of enemy humanoids in there, it is a dangerous risk to go in alone.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Clint brushed off. “Who’s else is going to annoy me if we don’t get him out?”

Clint thought he was going to start his 87 year sighing spree, but he started jogging into the smoke towards the building instead.

“Aw, look at this. Puppy love,” Clint heard Stark coo.

“Say that one more time Stark, and I’ll shoot you out of the sky myself.” Clint said as he ran into the doors of the building hoping not to die. What had he even gotten himself into?


	2. II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know what the update schedule will look like but, I plan on keeping up with this. I need to stop abandoning my writings lmao  
> OOOO also I changed the title and I probably will a lot until I settle on something that feels right inside my shipping heart. Hope you enjoy (:

To say that getting into the Hydra building where Pietro was would be a lie. Clint had already exhausted his first quiver of arrows and was hoping to use his others sparingly. Even in here, the air was smoky and hard to see in. Damn villains and their need for a dark atmosphere. It truly put a damper on the archer’s heroic crusade to save the damsel (Pietro) in distress.

This better be a good story to tell when Clint gets out of here.

“Does anybody have a read on Pietro’s tracker and on mine and would like to direct me through this shithole maze?” Clint said, rather impatiently, considering he was tired and just wanted to go home, for christ’s sake.

“Well, if you go forward and take a right at the second door, he _should_ be in there,” Tony informed, seemingly taking something serious for once, before he added, “Thank you for using Tony Stark’s tracking services, please come again.” There it goes.

As he approached the doors, Clint made sure his footsteps were silent before he kicked open the doors. He counted his targets, one, two, three, four, five, and Pietro. Don’t shoot Pietro, no matter how annoying (and cute) he is, don’t shoot Pietro.

Clint lets his arrows go wild, expertly hitting the targets except for the one in front of Pietro. Pietro had his back turned to Clint, kneeling on the ground with one hand out in front of him for stability. Besides the swaying, he was too still for Clint’s liking.

“Heil hydra,” the man said, raising the pistol at his side to his head, but before he could pull the trigger, an arrow hit him in the chest.

“ _Heil hydra?_ Yeah, no. Shut up, you’re done.” CLint snarked as he made his way to Pietro. The kid was still slumped over, but while getting closer, Clint noticed something on his exposed neck. It was a rectangle about two inches long across the nape of his neck. Clint would have Tony take a look at it when they were on the Quinjet, but no he just had to get out of there before reinforcements came in.

“Up we go, Speedy,” Clint grunted out as he pulled Pietro up, his arm slung around his shoulder. Pietro’s eyes were glazed over and unseeing, his feet wobbly and unsure. Something was definitely wrong. “Where’s the drive?” CLint asked, his voice laced with concern for the young man.

Pietro vaguely motioned to a desk and mumbled some words mostly in Sokovian but in just enough clear English for Clint to get the picture. His hands traveled along the desk, searching for the drive. Papers were scattered everywhere across the desk. Papers held secrets for launching codes, secrets of the experiments Pietro and Wanda were subjected to, secrets of what Hydra’s final end game was. That was all on the drive, too, so Clint _really_ needed it. Finally, the drive found it’s way into Clint’s hands. Clint had never really been religious, but _god bless_ , because he was starting to feel heavy footsteps making their way to the room he and Pietro were in.

“Okay, found the drive and the kid, we’re on our way. I better get paid nice for this. I need to fix Laura’s wall, I left before I could finish it,” Clint murmured the last sentence. He hated up and leaving his sister like that, again. He was probably the worst brother, but hey, he had shit to shoot with arrows, alright it’s his job.

The two stumbled around the building until they found an exit. Clint had to use his pistol once or twice to hit some guards. Other than the flinching at the gunshots, Pietro was almost fully unresponsive, he only followed Clint’s footsteps to the quinjet. Something was definitely wrong. The archer had never seen the kid move so slow, so normal almost. The hyperactive energy around him seemed drained.

They found their way into the jet and slumped to the floor, leaning against a wall. Tony was already taking them off the ground and into the sky right where they had gotten on. Bruce had changed back into Bruce, _thankfully_ , and was listening to his music, while Bucky was fussing over Steve, probably telling how stupid he was and lightly whapping him over the head.

Wanda had gotten up from where she was sitting silently and made her way towards Pietro, with Vision and Natasha trailing behind her. Vision was like a lost dog when it came to Wanda, it was classic pining between the two. There was even a betting pool on when they were going to actually get together.

Natasha kneeled down next to Clint, her face blank, but Clint could tell she had been worried about him. “You hurt?” She questioned while giving him a once over.

“Yeah, I’m fine, it’s him you should worry about. Also, we need a bigger quinjet,” Clint complained. Everyone was in there, except Thor who was off doing Asgardian things or something, and even then, there were eleven people there. Eleven tired, sweaty people. Gross.

“Brother,” Wanda whispered to Pietro. His distant eyes trailed across her face. She tapped his cheek softly, trying to get him to focus on her, on something. She was pleading for him to respond, trying to coax him out of his trance in English, Sokovian, and Russian, but he just stared ahead, his hands twitching slightly and mumbling about his neck.

Oh yeah, his neck. Whatever that thing was, it was still there, Clint saw the little blinking light coming from it.

“Tony!” Clint called out. “Get over here. There’s some kind of transmitter thing on Pietro’s neck. It’s messing him up.”

Tony skipped, _skipped_ , over, happy to see some kind of technology that he probably hadn't created. He knelt down to the same height Pietro was at, next to Wanda.

"May I?” Tony asked quietly to Wanda and Wanda nodded, slightly unsure. Tony tilted Pietro’s head forward with a gentleness Clint didn’t know the billionaire possessed. He looked around the piece of metal stuck to Pietro’s neck, gingerly poking at it to not cause any pain if there were any.

And then Tony stopped and looked up.

“I have no idea what this is.”

**  
**  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	3. III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2 chapters in 2 days? The end of the world is upon us. This will probably be a rare occurrence, considering I can't keep a proper schedule. Hope you enjoy! (:  
> ALSO if you do see any mistakes in my writing, it's 100% okay to tell me. I don't have anyone else proofreading this, and if you tell me, I'll fix it right away c:

They continued the flight in a hushed silence, the only sounds were the rushing of the wind and the hum of the engine. Bruce and Tony were having a muted conversation in the front of the jet, with the occasional suggestion buy Sam or Steve, only to tell them that their theories were wrong, but a valiant effort.

Wanda still sat next to her brother, whispering empty words of comfort into his unhearing ears. Clint couldn’t stand seeing the kid like this. He didn’t know why, but he just couldn’t.

When they finally landed, Maria Hill and Nick Fury met them at the entrance of the jet. They watched in suspicion as Wanda led Pietro out by his arm, supporting some of his weight. They looked to Clint and Natasha, but they said nothing, just stared on solemnly and left the jet.

“Alright, get changed, do whatever, but meet up in the common area in half an hour. We got problems to discuss.” Tony said, his voice almost unreadable, emotionless.

Clint wandered to his room to change but was lost in thought. What had happened to Pietro in the short time while he was in there?

* * *

Everyone was in the common room when Clint arrived there. He tossed an apple around in his hand while he waited for Tony to start talking.

“Okay, so the drive first,” Tony stated. “This drive,” he waved the piece of plastic around, “has exactly what we wanted on it, but there’s one drawback. We have no clue how hydra’s plans are running now.

“Here we see that hydra was planning to put more people under the same tests they put the Wonder Twins over here under.” Tony gestured towards the Maximoffs, where Pietro had curled himself into Wanda’s shoulder and fell asleep. It would normally be adorable, if it hadn’t looked so devastating. “Except, they had planned on harnessing the power of Loki’s scepter and putting it into the subject. And with the scepter's powers, they could have created mutant-like people, and they also could have had them under their control. Can’t do that now with the stone in our buddy’s head over there.” Vision stood a little straighter when all eyes were drawn to him.

“But they can’t just not have a backup plan,” Bruce spoke up, his arms crossed over his chest and the hood of his sweatshirt drawn close around his neck.

“Exactly, Bruce. But what is their backup plan?” Tony thought aloud.

“I used to be a backup plan for them.” Bucky deadpanned, and Steve quietly hit his thigh with the back of his hand.

“Ah, yes, tinman, you were, but right now having an assassin to fall back on doesn’t fit the situation. They have to have another power source. They wouldn’t have tried these experiment without a secondary system.” Tony babbled to the group, Clint could practically see the gears moving in his head.

“We’ll get back to this, but right now,” Tony pointed to Pietro. “Him.”

Sometime during the discussion, Pietro had woken up. His icy blue eyes were blown wide, terror shone in them. His breathing quickened and his head started to shake back and forth. He moved his feet out from under himself and placed them unsteadily on the ground. Not nearly as fast as he should have been, he stood up and looked as if he was about to run, but he only stumbled.

Without knowing what he was doing, Clint found his way towards Pietro, catching him before he could fully fall. He grabbed both sides of his face, turning his head so that he had no choice to look directly at Clint. Fear looked into fear as Clint held him there.

“Hey, kid, look at me, it’s okay. You’re safe here. It’s over,” Clint whispered. He expected the kid to shrug him off and say something playfully insulting, but what he didn’t expect was someone to hold on to him so tightly that it was hard to breathe. He didn’t expect hands to be clinging to his back like it was the only thing keeping him from washing away in the nightmares. He didn’t expect Pietro to break in front of him.

Pietro’s platinum white hair contrasted with Clint’s black t-shirt as he buried his face into his shoulder. Clint brought his hand up to the back of his neck, knowing that it comforted Pietro. He had seen Wanda do it plenty of times, okay, it wasn’t weird. He had forgotten about the device implanted at the base of his neck and quickly moved his hand to the back of Pietro’s head instead of his neck. His hands had brushed against the cold metal, it felt as if it was vibrating. This thing was starting to annoy the hell out of Clint, and no, he wasn’t getting protective over Pietro, obviously.

“Let’s get you over to Tony and Bruce, so they can get this thing off you, yeah?” Clint spoke softly into Pietro’s ear, careful not to frighten the younger man. The only response was a meager nod.

Seeing the motion Tony shot him, Clint followed him and Bruce with Pietro close in tow. Wanda now flanked Pietro’s other side. The pain of seeing her brother like this was evident on her face, but whenever he looked her way, she put on a kind smile, just for her brother.

When they got to the lab, Bruce awkwardly gestured for Pietro to sit on the examination table and Pietro hesitantly did. Wanda hopped up right after him, her hand intertwined with his. Her eyes had the red hue they usually did when she was using her powers. She must have been trying to put calm memories into his mind, and it was working. His shoulders had relaxed from their defensive set and his eyes had become less of a hard color.

Before Clint let the scientists get to work, he leaned over to Pietro to say, “I’m right here, kid. Always will be.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're getting to what the thingy ma boo bob on Pietro's neck in the next chapter!!! I'm psyched, hopefully you're psyched, geT PSYCHED (:


End file.
